Many processed cheese and cream cheese manufacturers utilize pouch forming, filling, and sealing equipment from American Can Company or Hart Manufacturing. Conventional processes utilize wax coated film (usually cellophane based) to make various size pouches on horizontal pouch forming equipment. Once these pouches are formed, they are filled with a food product such as cheese and sealed utilizing a “lap seal.” A lap seal is made by over-lapping films. The wax sealant layer of the waxed film provides a way to form a lap seal on the package due to the low melt initiation temperatures of wax coupled with its excellent flow and caulking properties. The heat of the molten cheese product (typically about 165° F.) is generally sufficient to activate a wax lap seal. However, waxed films are expensive and have a tendency to delaminate, wherein the wax layer pulls away from the film substrate and sticks to the food surface upon opening.
Currently, most pouch forming equipment, when using non-wax film such as a polymeric film, requires the formation of a “fin seal.” A fin seal has edges of superimposed films bonded to each other, resulting in a pouch having a fin-like protuberance. A fin seal requires a wider film width to make the fin, thus requiring more material per pouch and also tending to require considerably slower line speeds to properly facilitate the sealing of the fin seal. Moreover, a high cost is associated with retrofitting equipment to provide for formation of a fin seal.